


Only Too Familiar

by AHS



Category: Actor RPF, Queer as Folk (US) RPF
Genre: M/M, Toppy!Randy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-08-04
Updated: 2007-08-04
Packaged: 2017-10-13 04:21:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,081
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/132773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AHS/pseuds/AHS
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>QAF started in 2000.  But what if Gale and Randy met in 1998?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Window Seat

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I made this up.

_1998_

“This is me.”

Randy, already in his seat, buckled and ready to go, looked up in annoyance at the very last passenger to board the plane. The flight wasn’t full, and Randy had been planning on slipping into that empty window seat. No such luck.

Or, maybe he was lucky after all. Because when Randy’s eyes took in the man who had just spoken, he decided he was the most beautiful man he had ever seen.

“Oh… sorry,” Randy mumbled when he realized he’d just been staring. He started to stand up to let the gorgeous, dark-haired stranger in, but the man shook his head as he stuffed his duffel bag in the overhead, then scooted carefully past Randy’s knees. Randy tried but failed to not look at the delicious denim clad ass that was passing right in front of his face.

Once the man was seated, they did the usual friendly but tight expression, little nod thing you do on airplanes. It was enough for Randy to discover disarmingly hazel eyes, full, wine-colored lips, and the most adorable, slightly off-kilter smile. Such discoveries kept him occupied for several minutes, and the next thing he knew, the plane was taxiing down the runway.

Randy could hear a change in the man’s breathing, and he watched him grip the armrests, his head back and eyes closed. Such a visual made Randy’s thoughts drift slightly in a very naughty direction, but his concern made him push those thoughts to the back of his mind… for now.

“Are you afraid to fly?” he asked quietly.

The man opened his eyes, looking surprised but not bothered by the question. He shrugged, still tense. “I fly all the time.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“Nah. People have real phobias about this. I just get a little anxious.”

“You need to distract yourself.”

The engine noises were getting louder and the pull of takeoff was beginning. The man winced. “Sounds good. How?”

Randy grinned. “Sex.”

“Uh… excuse me?”

“Think about the best sex you ever had. Or wish you’d had. That’ll distract you.”

The man smiled, amused. “Maybe I should try just, you know, pretty good sex. If I think about the best, I might end up with another problem.” His eyes dropped quickly down to his crotch in explanation.

“I could help you out with that.”

Both men sort of froze at Randy’s words, spoken without thinking. But then Randy laughed at himself, and the man laughed, too.

“I can’t believe I said that.”

“For your sake, I hope you’re gay.”

“Yes, I am. And you…?“ Randy had been trying to get a reading on this guy, but all the signals were mixed up. “I can’t tell. I can always tell.”

“No,” the man said. “I’ve been told I should be, but no.”

Randy resolved not to cry. “Should be?”

“I lived in San Francisco for a while.”

“Ah, I see.” No wonder he wasn’t freaked out by some guy coming on to him. Randy held out his hand. “I’m Randy, by the way. Randy Harrison.”

The man took Randy’s hand in both of his, in a warm double handshake. See, there go those mixed up signals again. “Gale Harold. Good to meet you.”

“I figure once you’ve offered to bring someone to orgasm, you should know their name.”

“You’re an old-fashioned kind of guy.”

They laughed together again and Randy really liked the sound, and the feeling. “So… what’s in Atlanta for you?”

“Family. S’where I’m from. Well, Decatur. But I claim Atlanta, too. Whether or not it claims me is another story.”

Randy heard Gale’s southern accent creep out when he talked about where he was from, and he added it to the list of things to love about him.

“What about you?”

“Oh, I’m visiting friends. I used to live in Atlanta, too. I graduated the Pace Academy.”

“Impressive. So, I guess that answers my next question.”

“Which was?”

“If you’re older than you look.”

“How old do I look?”

“Hmm… 15.”

“Fuck you, I’m 20. And you must be… 40?”

“You are lucky I don’t believe in hitting children.”

“I’m just teasing. I’ll say… 28?”

“29 last week.”

“Happy birthday.”

“Thanks.”

*~*

“Why do you get the window seat if you’re sca-… anxious about flying?”

“I don’t get it for the window. I get it for the wall.”

“Huh?”

“So I fall asleep on it and not the person sitting next to me.”

“Oh… Thanks?… I guess.”

“Besides, I haven’t felt very anxious since we started talking.”

“Good. Then pull up the window shade.”

“No, that’s okay.”

*~*

__

One tiny bottle of liquor for Gale later…

__

“You weren’t on the plane from LA, were you?”

“No, I got on in Cincinnati. I’m a student at the U-Cin Conservatory of Music.”

“You’re a musician?”

“Musical theatre.”

“That means you sing.”

“Well, yes.”

“Sing me something.”

“What? No.”

“C’mon, please? I’m really scared.”

“You are not. You’re enjoying yourself.”

“You’re right, I am.”

“Okay, I’ll sing you ‘Happy Birthday’ after we land.”

“Fucking sweet.”

*~*

“So you’re an actor.”

“Guilty. And you are?”

“Uh… jack of all trades. Carpenter, motorcycle repair, photographer…”

“Wow, that’s cool. Hey, I need some new headshots. Want to do them for me?”

“Seriously? What if I’m bad?”

“You’re not.”

He was right. Gale knew he could take good pictures. “Uh, sure. I didn’t bring much equipment, but I think I have a camera that would work.”

“Of course, I’ll pay you.”

“Don’t worry about that, Randy. Talking about money fucking hurts my stomach.”

“If it’ll make you feel better, I could pay you in blow jobs… Oh my God, there I go again. What is wrong with me?”

Gale laughed so hysterically that the flight attendant came by to see if everything was all right. Randy was afraid it would be like grade school, that she would separate them for getting along too well and being loud. But she didn’t. Gale smiled at her, used some of that “straight” charm, and she was on her merry way to get him a drink.

*~*

__

Another tiny bottle of liquor later, this one split halvsies between them…

__

Randy had fallen asleep and his head drifted onto Gale’s shoulder. When he woke up, he smelled pot and fabric softener, he felt the plane shaking, felt another hand squeezing his, and looked up to see Gale looking back at him.

“Turbulence?”

“Minor, they said. Sorry about your hand. I just kinda grabbed it when I felt the…”

“No, it’s fine. Sorry I fell asleep on you. I really didn’t mean to.”

“It’s okay.”

“See? You should have given me the window seat.”

“Nah. Then I’d have fallen asleep on you. And I drool.”

“So, I don’t drool?”

“Not much.”

*~*

__

Airport, after the flight…

__

Gale held his cigarette between his lips, as he scribbled something on a napkin saved from the plane and handed it to Randy.

“Here’s my cell number. Call it when you want to do your pictures, or if you just want to hang out while you’re in Atlanta. I’m sure I’ll be dying for a break from my family before too long.”

“Wow… I will. I would have asked, but I didn’t want you to think I was hitting on you.”

“Good thing I’m straight so I could ask.”

“Yeah. Good thing… So, I guess… bye for now.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“……Oh, right… _Happy birthday to you… Happy birthday to you… Happy birthday dear Gale… Happy birthday tooooo youuuuu._ ”

“That was nice, Randy. Real nice.”

“I get a puff for that.”

“I’m in a good enough mood now, you get the whole thing,” Gale smiled, handing Randy his cigarette and lifting his bag higher on his shoulder. “Call.”

“Okay.”

************

Three days later, Gale got a call.

Three hours after that, Gale was shooting pictures of Randy in some empty loft one of Randy’s friends was in the process of vacating. It was a good space, with good light. And Randy could tell Gale was a really good photographer. He’d never much enjoyed posing for pictures before, but he felt very comfortable with Gale. He kept it casual and fun and, despite having known him such a short time, Randy trusted him. For most of the pictures, Randy was in a simple T-shirt and jeans. But after getting a bunch of those shots, Gale asked him if he wanted to try a sexier look. Randy asked what he had in mind. Gale smiled and came at him with a water bottle, pouring the contents over his head.

“Now take your shirt off.”

As the camera clicked and the water dripped, the seductive look in Randy’s eyes was inspired by his photographer. Gale, barefoot, focused on him, moving around like a panther or something… It was beautiful and frustrating. Over and over, it would seem like Gale was flirting with him, but he wasn’t. Gale was just the least homophobic straight guy Randy had ever met.

And when Gale told Randy he’d looked really hot, that wasn’t flirting either. That was just photographer speak.

After the photo shoot, they went to a bar where Randy knew they wouldn’t card him. They played pool, which Gale was much better at, and drank, which Gale was also much better at. They talked a little about their families and a lot about music, discovering their tastes were pretty similar. Each agreed the other was the best person they’d ever been sat next to on a plane.

Gale seemed to get even more touchy feely when he drank, which was, again, wonderful but very frustrating. After two beers, his hand had found a semi-permanent resting spot on Randy’s knee. After three, it moved to the back of Randy’s neck. He had one sip of a fourth and suddenly threw down some money and stood up, pulling Randy out of there with him.

Next thing Randy knew, they were in a cab. He didn’t know where they were going and didn’t really care. But he hoped the night wasn’t over yet.

Then they were in a hotel room. Randy was confused.

“Gale, why do you have a hotel room? I thought you were staying with your family.”

“I am… I just got this today. I... I needed some place I could talk to you, just us.”

“Okay… What do you want to talk about?”

Gale looked sort of like he had when the plane was about to take off. “Fuck. I, uh… I think I’m attracted to you… Yeah, I am.”

Randy shook his head back and forth a little, to make sure he wasn’t having auditory hallucinations. When he was sure it was real, he took a step closer to Gale. “How drunk are you?”

“Not enough to think you’re a girl, if that’s what you mean.”

“Gale, I need you to be serious about this, please.”

“I am, Randy, I… Shit, hang on.” Gale pulled a lighter and a joint out of his pocket, lit up, and inhaled until his hands stopped shaking. “I’m just letting you know, I know who I‘m with, okay? I know what I’m saying. I know what I want.”

“To get high?”

“I’m just nervous.”

Another step closer. “What do you want, Gale?”

“You. I fucking want to touch you like nothing I ever… I don’t know. I don’t understand it.”

“You said you weren’t gay.”

“I’m not. But there’s a fucking exception to every rule, right? I think you‘re mine.”

“Have you ever been with a man?”

“No… I made out with that one guy.”

“You did? What guy?”

“We were at a costume party, few years back. I was Bowie, he was Jagger. We got a little carried away.”

“Did you like it?” Randy took one more step.

“Not as much as…” Gale hesitated just a second, slowly reaching his hand into Randy’s hair. Suddenly, he pulled him in close, crushing their lips together.

Randy grabbed Gale’s ass, and Gale nearly bit him in response. Randy’s hands slid up and around to hold the face of the taller man, in a calming gesture, as their tongues met and tasted each other. When he felt Gale’s body relax a little, he decided to take control a bit more. Still kissing, and really hoping that Gale wouldn’t bolt, Randy managed to undo Gale’s jeans, shove a hand inside, and pull out his cock.

Gale gasped into Randy’s mouth. Randy swallowed Gale’s shuddery breaths as he closed his hand firmly around him and stroked the impressive length. Randy leaned his head back just enough to see Gale’s eyes shut tightly in pleasure. Raising on tiptoe, he kissed each eyelid. When they opened, Randy knew Gale had been telling the truth about knowing who he was with and what he wanted. He grinned and walked Gale backward towards the bed, keeping his hand pumping Gale’s now fully hard cock, feeling his own struggling against his suddenly too tight pants. Gale fell back flat onto the bed, and Randy climbed up his body, straddling his hips.

“I’m gonna make you feel so good,” Randy promised, or warned, leisurely pulling off Gale’s shirt, all the while grinding their erections together.

“God, Randy,” Gale panted, already wondering how much better he could feel.

Randy picked up Gale’s right hand and started teasing the skin, the nerve endings. He knew the insides of his own fingers to be a surprisingly erogenous zone, so he thought he would see if the same was true of Gale. Taking each finger individually, he ran a fingertip ever so lightly over the inside skin, back and forth. He heard Gale make a little hiss sound and wondered if he was feeling that exquisite line of fire as he touched him. To put out the flame, Randy took the middle finger, which had proven the most sensitive, and slowly licked along the sides, then sucked it into his mouth.

“ _Randy_ ,” Gale begged urgently, appeasing his dick the best he could with his left hand.

Randy stood up and pulled off Gale’s shoes and pants and underwear… God, he was beautiful… then quickly removed his own clothing. He watched Gale watching him, and how his jacking, now with both hands, intensified as he did.

“Ohh… fuck me.”

Despite Randy’s in-control bedroom persona, he’d been figuring on Gale fucking him, just because he thought as a… mostly straight guy that would be how he would be most comfortable. He hadn’t let himself hope of fucking Gale, but it seemed that might actually be what Gale wanted. He decided not to ask, but just to see if Gale went along with it.

“Roll over onto your stomach.”

Not only did Gale get into position, no questions, but he reached out to the night table where he’d dropped his wallet, picked it up and tossed it to Randy.

“Condom,” he mumbled into the pillow.

Randy found the packet inside, tore it open, and put the condom on. He’d brought one, too, but he realized what he didn’t have was lube. What self-respecting gay man doesn’t carry lube?

__

You know, in case you convert a straight guy you meet on a plane…

__

Randy climbed back on the bed and stretched himself out along Gale’s beautiful landscape, his hills and valleys and muscles and sleek. Randy wanted to ask Gale if he was sure, but was afraid to. He settled for kissing Gale’s back for several minutes, as a silent question, until Gale answered by reaching around to Randy’s perfectly round ass and pulling his pelvis against him.

“Okay,” Randy whispered, somehow proud of Gale. He spit profusely on his fingers, knowing that would have to do. “It’s going to hurt,” he told him softly, and Gale nodded in acceptance. Randy pulled apart the cheeks of Gale’s ass and brought his fingers to the hole, working two carefully inside, then three. Gale squirmed slightly and made small sounds of intrusion, but he never tried to stop or pull away. Randy wiggled his fingers, spread them as much as Gale’s virgin ass would allow, and then prayed Gale was ready because his cock just _had_ to get inside.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Gale cried out as Randy pushed inside him. “Jesus Chr-… Ahh…”

“Are you all right?” Randy asked in his ear, concerned about Gale but barely holding on himself, through the unbelievable tightness surrounding him.

“Yeah… Yeah… Shit, Rand…”

“Just breathe, okay? Relax.” Randy spied Gale’s joint sitting in the ashtray on the table and wished it were still lit. “Um… you want me to sing to you?”

“You can _sing_ right now? Like this?”

“Ah, probably not.” He pulled out again and rubbed Gale‘s back as he started to sing. “Mmmbop, ba duba dop, ba duba dop ba du…"

Though still in some pain, Gale laughed. "Mmmbop? I fucking hate that song."

"Well, when it played this afternoon when we were doing the pictures, you were only too happy to make me pose to it. That's what you get... Mmmbop, ba duba dop..."

Randy could feel the relaxation sinking into Gale's entire body, so when he entered again, even without warning, it hurt Gale much less.

"Ohh... you fucker."

"Who me?"

"Yeah. Thanks to you now I’m gonna get hard whenever I…unh… hear that stupid song. Old ladies are gonna… think I’m a perv and… fuck… hit me with their purses."

“Poor baby. I’ll protect you.”

As Randy rocked into Gale’s body, now taking his cock to the hilt every time, Randy tried not to think about whether or not he would be around to “protect” Gale. Their respective trips to Atlanta would be over before long. And Los Angeles was a long way from Cincinnati. He didn’t know if he could even imagine himself living in LA. He’d always pictured moving to New York.

But why was he thinking about any of this? He didn’t need to figure out how to coordinate his life with that of a guy he’d known for three days who was, at least somewhat, straight. This was just a really hot fuck.

As Gale and Randy moved together, Gale’s hand reached back to find Randy’s and their fingers collided and threaded.

A really hot fuck who just might be the best friend I’ve ever had, thought Randy.

And an overwhelming need to lose himself in Gale overtook him. Randy drove his cock into Gale deeper and faster, and Gale was right there with him, pushing back into him, not losing the rhythm.

“You feel… so fucking… _good_ … in me,” Gale cried brokenly, getting close.

Randy knew he couldn’t last much longer and reached for Gale’s cock to get him off, just in time for Gale’s hot cum to shoot all over his hand. The combination of getting fucked and the friction from the sheets beneath him had been more than enough. The cum on Randy’s skin and the vibration that shook Gale’s body and his broke Randy in turn, and he came with a shout in Gale’s ear, silenced by biting Gale’s tan shoulder.

After a minute, Randy raised his head and said, teasing in his voice, “So, you got this room so we could _talk_ , hmm?”

They laughed. Randy slipped out, regretfully, and disposed of the condom. Gale rolled over and found Randy in his arms. Randy kept waiting for Gale to get weird, but he didn’t. They fell asleep.

*********

A couple of hours later, Randy woke up to use the bathroom. On the way back, he noticed a piece of paper on the floor next to the night table. He picked it up and unfolded what turned out to be a newspaper clipping. With a picture of Gale and some pretty blond girl, arms wrapped around each other. The headline said “Harold~Collins Wedding To Take Place July 25.” Then under the picture, “Gale Morgan Harold, of Decatur, to marry Ashley Lynn Collins, of San Diego, CA.”

Randy felt like he was going to be sick. That clipping must have fallen out of Gale’s wallet when he got the condom. July 25... That was eight days away.

Not only was Gale “straight,” he was fucking _engaged_. He was getting married in a week.

That would make Randy, what? A variation on the _last fling_? Instead of just finding some pussy, Gale decided to really get wild and try cock before he vowed the rights to his to this Ashley chick?

Even if it was just a fuck, they were still friends, Randy had thought. He still should have told him.

Sadder than he could ever remember being, Randy put his clothes back on, stuffed the clipping into his pocket, and left.

*************

_2000 (two years later…)_

“Randy, this is Gale Harold. He’s testing for Brian. Gale, this is Randy Harrison, your Justin.”


	2. Screen Test

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Randy, this is Gale Harold. He’s testing for Brian. Gale, this is Randy Harrison, your Justin.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I made this up.

_2000, Los Angeles_

“Randy, this is Gale Harold. He’s testing for Brian. Gale, this is Randy Harrison, your Justin.”

Randy felt his brain implode and time stop and he did his best to keep breathing. He hadn’t even heard what Ron… or maybe it was Dan… said to introduce them. He had seen Gale and then he was just _gone_. Into memories of flirting and turbulence, of falling asleep on shoulders. Flashbacks of drinking and talking, confessions, and bodies pushing and accepting. Sweet realization and bitter disappointment.

He was shocked out of it by Gale’s hand grabbing his for a handshake which was strong but generic, like you would share with anyone you just met. So it would appear to CowLip, at least. But Randy could feel the way Gale’s touch sparked his skin and burned. He looked down at his hand as Gale released it to see if smoke was coming off it.

“I know, he’s fabulous, isn’t he?” gushed Ron, taking Randy’s stunned reaction for something a little simpler than it was. “And he can act! Now… let’s see what kind of chemistry you two have to work with. I‘m getting a good vibe already…”

Randy was watching Gale’s eyes, and for the first time since he walked in the room he saw some of Gale’s sureness falter. Just for a second. Randy had already concluded that Gale must have known beforehand that he would be there… maybe Dan and Ron told him who had already been cast, or at least the name of the actor he would be testing with… so steeled he seemed, rather than appropriately shocked. But before the moment’s slip could make Randy feel any better, Gale had become Brian and they were doing the scene.

Randy had to hand it to him. For someone who hadn’t even purported to be an actor, Gale was good. Really good. Much better than the others he’d had to read with. Randy found himself regarding Gale with awe, which helped him fall into his role of Justin, the lovestruck teenager who worshipped Brian like a god. Dan and Ron made positive murmurs afterwards, while Randy stood there in disbelief, not only that this man had appeared in his life again, but that the two of them were reading scenes, pretending to be strangers playing at being lovers, like this was all completely normal.

And they were good together.

Then the producers wanted to see the scene ending with the big kiss. The Justin character was supposed to be scared, nervous, trying to prove he wasn’t… almost prove his worth. Randy didn’t have to stretch too far for that. The worry was, would it be too good? Would it be obvious they had done this before? And, if it was like before, would he be able to handle it? He felt like he was on a rollercoaster nearing the very top of a hill, and he was torn between wanting the ride to stop and wanting to throw his arms up and give in to the free fall that awaited.

Gale moved in slowly, determined, then stopped, making Randy close the distance. Once their mouths came together, they challenged each other for control, neither sure whether it was their characters or themselves trying to prove something. But there was a tenderness in the kiss, and most definitely a _heat_. This was no kind of stage kiss. They ended with their foreheads resting roughly against each other’s, and even out of the corners of their eyes, they could see CowLip drooling.

“Wow,” said Dan. “That was… all we could have dreamed, really.”

“And even if we weren’t so desperate to cast Brian,” Ron winked, thinking he was amusing, “we would still be saying… the part is yours, if you want it.”

“Please want it,” added Dan.

As Randy backed away, he didn’t even have time to think about what the possibility of doing this show with Gale meant. He was just glad to see Gale looked as shaken by the kiss as he was.

“Thank you,” Gale said, clearing his throat. “I’ll think it over and get back to you.” And he turned and strode out.

Randy rattled off some excuse to Dan and Ron about running late for an appointment and hurried out of there, knowing he had to talk to Gale. He caught up with him in the parking lot.

“Hey!” he yelled. Gale froze, hand on the door of his truck, and turned around.

“Hey,” he said calmly. “Good scene.”

“Is that all you have to say?”

“… Nice to meet you?”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Randy went off. “Wow, you really are a jack of all trades… carpenter, photographer… _actor_ … liar.”

“Same difference,” Gale muttered.

“I should have known, being that good-looking and from LA, you had to be an actor. You seemed so different, though.” His voice got quieter. “I thought maybe the photography… By the way, thanks for my pictures.”

Gale had tracked down the name of Randy’s agent and sent the headshots with no note or return address right after… that night. They had arrived on July 25, 1998, and Randy thought of them as a sad and wrong but fucking gorgeous wedding present from the groom to him.

“They were amazing,” Randy said to Gale’s silence. “I wasn’t sure I should use them, but they were too good not to. I still am. I haven’t changed much… I’m playing a seventeen year old, for Christ’s sake. And your pictures got me my audition for this show.” Maybe it wasn’t exactly irony, but it was fucking weird.

Gale remained quiet, looking down and dragging his foot over the asphalt. But then he said, “Shirt or no shirt?”, in his first real acknowledgment of the past.

Randy let himself smile a little. “Both. To show the double whammy of innocence and sex appeal that is Justin.”

“That’s good.”

Awkward. The air was heavy and awkward and sad, and both were looking at the ground. Until Randy raised his head and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Gale shrugged. “I didn’t feel comfortable calling myself an actor yet. I hadn’t even been doing it a year at that point, and… Why the fuck am I explaining myself to you?” His face went from blank and controlled to angry.

But Randy hadn’t meant the acting thing. He had meant why hadn’t Gale told him he was engaged before they…

“Speaking of explaining yourself, how’s the wife?”

“What?”

Randy caught Gale’s left hand and held it before his face, inspecting it. “Where’s your ring?”

Finding no golden band on Gale’s left ring finger confused Randy, and he grabbed lamely at the right hand. He found no ring, but he spotted something marking the inside of his middle finger. Looking closely, it was a tattoo… a word… RESIST.

“You didn’t have this before,” Randy pointed out, running a fingertip over the letters. “Resist… me?”

Gale thought that needle should have deadened the skin pretty well, but fuck if it wasn’t more sensitive than ever. Or maybe it was just Randy. He was barely touching him, his mouth was nowhere near, but Gale would swear he could feel Randy sucking his finger. He yanked his hand away.

“What did you tell your wife it meant?”

“Would you shut up?” Gale yelled, fed up. “I’m not fucking married!”

Gale watched Randy react, watched him blink, genuinely thrown… thought back two years… and he realized what had happened. What Randy had thought.

“Shit… I wondered where that newspaper announcement went.”

“I found it on the floor.” Randy remembered how hurt he’d felt, and his next words came out with a little extra attitude. “I figured we’d gotten your pre-wedding fling out of the way, so I might as well be on _my_ way.”

Gale took that in for a beat, nodded, and as he turned said simply, “I didn’t get married.” Then he got into his truck.

“You didn’t?” Randy squeaked, hoping Gale could only read his lips through the glass. Gale rolled the window down.

“See you at work, I guess.”

“Wait! You’re taking the part?”

“It’s a good part. It pays. Why wouldn’t I?”

“Uh…” Randy thought of the pilot script, and of how daring this show planned to get on a regular basis when it came to sex scenes. How Brian and Justin were going to set the standard. “There’s a lot of… closeness between our characters.”

“Won’t be a problem for me.”

“Oh… good. Me neither.”

****************

 _Toronto_

Randy had never felt his life in this much upheaval. Not only was he picking up and moving to Canada, where he knew no one… to work on his first TV show, one that he just couldn’t see realistically making it to air at all, even on cable… but the most confusing and disconcerting part of his life was the part that was only too familiar.

Gale.

Filming the pilot was… interesting. Gale was very professional, and he was never angry, or even cold, with Randy anymore. He’d returned to that friendly but tight stranger smile from the plane, before they got to know each other. Because they didn’t know each other anymore, apparently, and some days that just made Randy want to weep.

But their bodies knew each other well. And responded to each other as such.

Randy knew it shouldn’t be arousing, when there’s a handful of people watching you, and you’ve been directed as to just how to move, and no that didn’t help, but he was _naked with Gale_. Gale, looking even more beautiful than he remembered, even with that stupid cocksock they made them wear. Every time their skin touched, Randy felt his dick grow impossibly harder.

He couldn’t help but identify with Justin in that scene where Brian is straddling him and he’s trying not to come. God, that was a particularly embarrassing one to do. But, hard or not, at least he fared better on that point than Justin did. And Gale was actually very considerate, very sweet. They didn’t say anything about it, but Gale would kind of keep himself between Randy and those on the other side of the camera as much as possible to keep them from getting a peek.

When Gale got hard, he didn’t seem to care who saw. Except maybe Randy, who, when he could, pretended not to notice.

It was shooting the main love scene, sex scene, whatever, that changed Gale and Randy’s relationship… again. Although Randy didn’t really get it at the time, Gale being allowed to be Brian and be the one in control… the one doing the teaching… the one fucking Justin, even if only fake fucking Randy… the one giving reassurances about the pain… and the one who cared less of the two, flipped something back into balance that had been left out of whack when Randy left.

When it was all finished, Gale knocked on his dressing room door.

“Just a sec.”

Randy unlocked and opened the door a minute later, Gale’s quirked eyebrow making him wonder if Gale knew he’d been jerking off.

“Let’s go get a drink,” was what Gale said.

“Really?”

“We should talk.” He even smiled. “I mean _talk_. Like, not in a hotel room.”

Randy’s heart soared, catching a glimpse of his friend. “Okay.”

****************

“So… you didn’t get married.”

“Nope.”

“Why not?”

“Beers first. You order.”

“Why me?”

“I just want to see you get carded and actually have legal ID to show.”

“Haha,” said Randy, but he did it… “Okay, now tell me.”

Gale sighed into his beer. “I’d been having doubts for a long time. I didn’t even propose, you know, she did. I was visiting my family to let them down easy. Let them know I was thinking about calling it off.”

“Just thinking about it?” Randy said casually. _So you were still engaged._

“Well, after… that night… I was sure.” Gale sipped, measuring his words. “And, no, it wasn’t a matter of realizing I was gay or anything like that. It was just… realizing I could feel more than I did for Ash.”

“Ash?” Randy couldn’t explain the knot that formed in his stomach at Gale’s use of the affectionate nickname for his ex-fiancée.

“Ashley, yeah. She’s a good girl.”

“No, I’m sure she’s wonder-… You felt more?” Randy could talk very fast, but sometimes he was slow at listening. He scooted his bar stool a little closer to Gale’s and ran a hand along his arm. Gale seemed to wince.

“Then I woke up alone. And I felt left, and then I felt used… then I felt like a fucking fool, and then I felt nothing.”

Randy recoiled at Gale’s words. More at the matter-of-fact, faux cheery tone with which he ended his statement. Randy took a shaky step away from the bar and started to leave, feeling Gale must want him gone. Gale caught his arm.

“I’m sensing a pattern with you, Randy. But you don’t get to leave this time. Fucking talk to me.”

Randy nodded, swallowing his fear. “Okay. We’ll talk. Can we move to one of those booths over there?”

They moved to a dark booth, and Randy chose to sit not across from Gale but right next to him. Gale started to say something about it, but Randy just smiled.

“This is me not leaving.”

“Nice. So…”

“So… how did you feel used? I mean, whether you were probably calling it off or not, you were still the one testing yourself out with me to see if what you really wanted was the girl in the poufy white dress.”

“Whether _that’s_ true or not, bottom line is, I’m the one who got fucked and I’m the one who got left.”

When Gale put it like that, Randy didn’t have much to say in his own defense.

“You should have told me, though,” was all he could come up with.

“Yeah, maybe. But, you know, you could have woken me up. Woken me up, thrown something at me, I don’t care. Said, ‘What the hell is this?’ and let me explain.”

“And maybe you would have explained, and maybe I would have understood… Then what? Self-identified straight man who was two seconds from being Mr. and Mrs.? You think we would have gone steady?”

Gale knocked back the last of his beer just in time to ignore that question, stand up and say, “I need another one.”

Randy sat, his head in his hands. He contemplated everything from slitting his wrists, to quitting the show, to checking the jukebox to see if it had _Mmmbop_ , to hiding under the table… and maybe blowing Gale as soon as he sat back down. He was seriously leaning towards the last one, but suddenly a beer was being plunked down in front of him and Gale was back.

Randy’s overdramatic fantasies weren’t needed. They seemed to make an unspoken decision to lighten up the discussion from then on. They laughed about Gale having to do that slo-mo, I’m so sexy, pouring the bottle of water over himself shot, and laughed remembering Gale pouring the water over Randy to sex him up when they’d done the pictures. They laughed about Gale’s new trouble with flying… how some asshole had told him to think about the best sex he ever had, and so he’d spent the last two years hogging airplane bathrooms on flights, jacking off while thinking of Randy.

Actually, that wasn’t so funny, and their laughter kind of faded by the end.

“I like your hair,” Gale told him.

“Really?” Randy self-consciously fingered the short strands, the color of which the producers had made him change from his natural light brownish to a bright, shiny blond. “I don’t.”

“You don’t want to look younger is all. But get over it. It’s hot.”

Randy eyed Gale’s beer, thinking how it had only taken three that night for Gale to take him to a hotel and ask to be fucked. Gale caught his eye and smiled knowingly.

“Only two. I’m done.”

“No semi-drunken confessions tonight?”

“Just that you’re a damn good actor. I don’t think I’ve told you that.”

“Thanks. You, too. I mean, you’re putting more into Brian than… I don’t know. I didn’t think much of him from the script. And I didn’t really get why Justin thinks he’s in love with him, except that Brian’s hot and Justin doesn’t know any better. But when we did the scenes, I really felt… I think I get it now.”

Two beers had been the magic number it took to put Gale’s hand on Randy’s knee, and it did its work again. Although this time it landed a little closer to Randy’s thigh.

“You’re just saying that ‘cause I licked your ass today,” Gale murmured in his ear.

The hot breath tickled. “Maybe,” Randy giggled.

Gale’s hand seemed to be sliding higher. Randy watched it in fascination, realizing that he had been keeping such good track of Gale’s alcohol intake, he really wasn’t sure how much he’d had himself.

“Um, Gale… I want to ask you something,” he made himself say, buying time, deciding whether or not he was going to let Gale’s hand reach its eventual destination.

“Mm hmm.”

“Well, because… you saw me at the screen test, I was so… aaahh, so shocked to see you… but you weren’t… So I just wanna know how you… reacted when you found out I was on the show.” Randy leaned back against the wall, tucking himself into the corner as much as he could. “I mean… did you care?”

“Dan called after my audition and said, ‘We want you to come for a screen test with Randy Harrison, who’s playing Justin.’ I was… yeah, I was shocked. I dropped my fucking coffee, nearly burned myself.”

“You did?”

“Yeah. I thought no way, can’t be, but… I knew it was you.”

“How?”

“I kind of pictured you already, for my audition… Not that Justin reminded me much of you, but it worked, you know.” Gale’s voice rumbled, deepened. “I picture you for a lot of things.”

If Randy had needed to ask what that meant, he would have swallowed his own voice anyway when Gale’s hand found its goal… his other hand bringing Randy’s hand to close around his cock, straining against worn denim.

In the cab ride to Gale’s, Randy got him to quietly confess that he’d had a couple more experiences with gay sex in the last two years. But there were still a lot of things he hadn’t tried, and Randy was more than happy to fill in all the blanks.

“Have you ever…?” he whispered in Gale’s ear, nibbling his earlobe.

“Nope.”

“Then that’s first on the list.”

“As long as I get to fuck you this time.”

“You’d better.” Randy still felt take after take of their pretending all through his body. “And I won’t… I mean, if you don’t want… I won’t leave.”

“Yeah… that’d be okay.”

 


	3. Wrap Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The season ends, but do Gale and Randy?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I made this up.

“Your eyebrows shouldn’t work.”

Gale’s eyes opened and looked oddly at Randy, who had been lying there staring quietly at him up until that comment. Gale gave up on catching a few extra zzz’s.

“What are they supposed to be doing?”

“I mean they shouldn’t work for Brian. He’s so vain, you’d think he’d insist on having, you know… two. OW!”

Randy responded melodramatically to the pinch Gale gave to his hip, through laughter. Gale gently rubbed the spot of skin, his hand resting comfortably there when finished.

“I’m just saying, haven’t they ever come after you with the tweezers in makeup?”

“Yeah. But I talked them out of that idea real quick.”

“How did you do that?”

Gale yawned and his body stretched under Randy’s. “Told ‘em Brian doesn’t get fucked and he doesn’t get plucked. He’s so beautiful, he knows he can get away with it. Me, on the other hand… you’re gonna give me a complex.”

He was kidding, but it was true. Randy knew, despite his talent for Brian-esque bravado, Gale had no fucking clue how beautiful he was.

“Aww.” Randy kissed the space between Gale’s eyebrows and licked at the little stray hairs. “I think you’re perfect.”

“I think you’re full of shit, but you mean it,” murmured Gale, pushing Randy to his back. “And for that…” Gale tugged the sheets that half covered Randy’s lower body away and moved backward down the bed, his mouth finding the not quite sleeping cock he couldn’t get enough of and waking it fully.

Gale’s sexual experiences with men between the first time with Randy and the times since numbered exactly two. Well, one and a half, by Gale’s count. A few days after leaving Atlanta and returning to CA, he had visited his former home of San Francisco, smoked a lot of weed, and fucked some random guy. He’d done it to get a feeling of control back and, admittedly, to forget Randy. After that, it was back to pussy, until the night before his original QAF audition, when he’d gotten in character by going to the back room of a gay dance club and getting blown.

He’d enjoyed it, of course. The blow job, if not the dance club. And he had described the encounter in detail, at Randy’s request, any irrational jealousy Randy might have experienced overwhelmed by the hotness of reenacting it, then changing places. Gale had been a little reluctant to suck cock, even with Randy, as if that would be the final thing that made him gay. (You would think if anything did that it would have been getting his ass fucked.) But he wanted it, wanted Randy, so he gave in… and it quickly pulled alongside recreational marijuana as his favorite hobby.

Despite the hotness of the Gale in the back room story, Randy still had to tease him about it sometimes.

“The sacrifices you make to be a Method actor,” he said on one such night, still tasting Gale on his lips.

“I know. But whatever works.” Gale absentmindedly grabbed at Randy’s tummy, tickling. “So… how am I doing?”

“What?” Randy looked at Gale and understood. “You mean playing gay?”

“Yeah.”

“Well… in my expert opinion… on the show, you’re good… but in real life, you really convince me.”

Randy was full of teasing and a laughing seduction, running fingers down Gale’s chest. Gale wasn’t laughing at all. He got up and started pulling on his clothes.

“Fucking nevermind,” he said, low.

“Gale… I just meant…”

Gale heard the panic in Randy’s voice that he’d said something wrong. “It’s fine,” he told him, shooting him the smallest smile. “I’ll see you at work in the morning.”

“O- Okay… bye,” Randy stammered as Gale left.

As Randy sat in his bed, suddenly cold and feeling the lack of a goodbye kiss on his lips, he wondered for the millionth time about the status of his relationship with Gale. Since the night Gale had fucked him for the first time, they had been sleeping together on a fairly regular basis. But not regularly enough, or with any kind of discussion about it, to explain what it might mean. They worked together, they were… friends, and sometimes they’d crash at the other’s place and fuck. In some ways it was the best relationship Randy had ever had, but in others it wasn’t one at all.

No one knew about it. Okay, he almost thought Thea did, but Randy was pretty sure it was just her personal wishful thinking he was picking up on. He and Gale were totally professional at work. Gale, especially. He would go into Brian mode and stay there, even before that one time early on when they’d fucked in Randy’s dressing room and very nearly been caught due to a not quite locked lock. Even then, it felt like Brian he was with. What really frustrated Randy was watching Gale around the set being himself with the other cast, and the way Gale’s smile or laugh would lessen subtly when he came around, so as to keep the secret.

The decision to keep it a secret had been mutual. After all, there was a rule against such activities between the actors in their contracts. And it just didn’t seem like anyone else’s business. Although there was a teenage girlish part of Randy that wanted to shout to the world, “Look how amazing my boyfriend is!” Except Gale wasn’t his boyfriend. Around other people, he wasn’t even his best friend. Randy was starting to wonder if that made him basically a booty call.

It never felt that way when they were alone together, though, in bed or out. Just hanging out at Gale’s apartment, or Randy’s. Ordering in. Or Randy laughing at Gale’s version of cooking. Gale laughing at what he termed Randy’s selective OCD (how he always had books and clothes strewn all over his bedroom but he’d freak out over crumbs on the kitchen counter). Listening to music, leisurely getting stoned, and debating all sorts of things, even things they agreed on. Watching movies and falling asleep on each other. Fucking for hours and falling asleep _in_ each other. So… whatever they didn’t have was worth it for what they did.

Things continued through the season this way. Until the end of shooting was rapidly approaching and they hadn’t talked at all about what would happen. But Gale knew Randy was itching to go to New York and do theatre. Just like Randy knew Gale would head back to Los Angeles and auditioning for films. At least they knew the show was coming back for a second season. And so, Randy had been assured, was he, despite Justin getting bashed in the head with a baseball bat in the finale. That had been… intense. Gale’s performance had floored him. And later, at Gale’s, the way he held Randy, kissed him, pushed into him, was different from all the times before. He would never use the words and scare Gale off, but Randy was sure it was what making love was.

So Randy was at his absolute happiest the next morning and trying to control his impulse to put smiley faces on the pancakes he was making when the phone rang. A voice he didn’t know came on Gale’s answering machine and then everything kind of skidded to a stop.

“Gale, sweetness, it’s Ash. Sorry I haven’t emailed you back in a while, but I have been crazy busy and I want to tell you why. But in person. Were you serious about inviting me to your show’s wrap party? If you want, I can be up there by tomorrow morning. Let me know because I really need to see you. Ok, Dirty Harry?” Her laugh rang out over the line, lilting and naughty. “Call me.”

As the beep signaled the end of the message, Randy was brought out of his stupor by the smell of burned pancake and turned off the stove. The ex-fiancée?? He hadn’t expected this. She hadn’t really come up between them since Gale’s initial explanation that he hadn’t gotten married. Except briefly when the press, in their quest to put a fucking sexual identity label on Gale, had dug up the fact that he’d been engaged to a woman and declared him straight. Nevermind that he had called it off. Both of them had been annoyed by the whole thing, for slightly different reasons, but aside from her name and her picture being resurrected for a week or so, Ashley Lynn Collins hadn’t been much of a topic of discussion for Randy and Gale. What was she doing calling now? And sounding so… friendly?

Gale stepped out of the bathroom surrounded by steam, towel around his waist and hair dripping in his eyes. “Pancakes smell… uh, done. Did I hear the phone?”

“Sure did… _sweetness_ ,” Randy said, scraping pancake off the pan. “You have a message.”

Only one person had ever called Gale “sweetness.” He closed his eyes and prepared to deal with Randy. “Ashley called?”

“Don’t you mean _Ash_?” Randy dropped the spatula with a clatter. “Why didn’t you ever mention you were still in contact with her?”

“Rarely. A few emails. Honest to God, I didn’t think it was important.”

“Obviously it was important enough for you to keep it from me. You just didn’t want to because you thought I’d get all possessive and queen out on you.”

“Now why would I ever think that?” Gale said, his sarcasm quiet and light, accompanied by a tiny, tired smile.

“We have no commitment. I know that. I just want to know… This is the girl whose heart you broke, right? A week before the wedding? It figures that you’d still be friends with her. You’re so weird,” Randy muttered, then raised his voice. “And why the fuck did she call you _Dirty Harry_?”

“Ah,” Gale ran a hand through his wet hair. “When we met she thought Harold was my first name for, like, a week. She kept calling me ‘Harry’ for fun. The ‘Dirty’ part she added… later.”

Randy cursed Gale for making him think of him having heterosexual sex. “Ew,” he said definitively, busying himself with the dishes, though they hadn‘t even eaten yet.

Gale came up behind him, resting his hands on Randy’s hips and his forehead atop Randy’s hair. “Look, I’m sorry. But you don’t need to worry about Ashley.”

“You invited her to the wrap party. Were you even going to warn me?”

“Of course I would have. I didn’t really think she’d want to come, though.”

“But she does. She _needs_ to see you.”

Gale turned Randy around in his arms, smiling at the petulant face before him and the feel of soap bubbles dripping onto his neck off Randy’s hands. “What do you need?”

Randy knew, Gale’s skin soft and slick and irresistible under his touch, that this almost-fight was as good as over. “Mmm. I need… to dry my hands.” He slid his wet hands down Gale’s arms to his torso, sinking his fingers into the cotton and grabbing, the towel coming loose and falling to the floor. “Oops. Sorry.”

“You’re not sorry,” Gale whispered, tugging Randy’s sweatpants down and pushing him back against the counter. Taking his rapidly hardening cock in hand, pressing it to his own, thrusting against him and jacking them both together.

“No… not,” Randy gasped. “Fuck.”

Randy gripped Gale’s ass and dropped his head into Gale’s warm-smelling neck, held on as Gale’s strong hands sped up, slowed down, sped up faster and faster, and let his lover carry them both over. Their bodies tensed and broke and shuddered and clung.

“Did that relax you any?” Gale asked, lips to Randy’s shoulder.

The feeling of their mixed cum sticking their skin together tended to have that effect. “For now.” Randy raised his head. “But you may have to keep doing that.”

And he kissed Gale’s grin. The one that said that would be no problem at all.

“Do you want me to tell her no, not to come up here?”

“You’d do that?”

“Yeah.”

Randy smiled. “Then no, you don’t need to. I‘d love to meet her.”

********

Randy meant it at the time. He really did. But that was before he had an entire day and night to wonder about this woman and why she was coming to see Gale. Like maybe she wanted him back. And maybe Gale might see her and wonder why he gave up breasts and… whatever is supposed to be so great about pussy, and decide that he wanted her back, too.

Still, he had pulled himself together. He had told himself that was silly. But then he called Gale, who answered laughing. Randy heard her in the background, laughing, too. Randy felt Gale closing down a little from the first sound of his voice, becoming not much more than polite. Almost cold. He asked when he should come over, figuring Gale would introduce him to Ashley and they’d all go to the party together. But Gale quickly dismissed that idea, saying, “I’ll see you there.” Before he hung up, Randy heard Ashley ask who it was and Gale answer, “This guy I work with.”

Randy didn’t know what he’d expected. But… something. Something better.

Fine. If Gale was going to go and show off his _date_ to everybody, pretending he didn’t exist, Randy would do the same.

Which is why he showed up to the wrap party with Steve, an attractive, sandy-haired guy, fairly muscularly built for someone he’d met in the gardening section of the local bookstore. Steve had been pulled from a pile of phone numbers guys slipped to Randy but he never called because he was taken. Or, at least, he felt taken. But today… Randy was feeling single.

Especially when he saw Gale and Ashley come in. It wasn’t like he hadn’t looked at that newspaper announcement photo of them a million times, but in person he was struck again by how good they looked together, and it ate at him. He saw the moment Gale saw him, and he wrapped his arm around Steve’s waist and tried to pay attention to what he and Peter were talking about. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gale steer Ashley over to a large group that included Hal, Scotty, Michelle, Thea and her husband, Dan and Ron.

“Oh, is that the almost Mrs. Harold?” Peter asked Randy, over the sounds of ooh’s and ahh’s and introductions.

“I guess so,” Randy shrugged, faking well. “None of my business.”

“She’s gorgeous,” Peter just had to point out. “Let’s go meet her!”

Randy let himself be pulled over there, and dragged poor Steve along with him.

By the time they got there, she was telling a more detailed version of the Dirty Harry story and everyone was laughing. When she finished, she gave Gale a small but intimate kiss on the mouth, and Randy nearly turned and ran away. Before he could, she saw him, reached out and grabbed his hand, her perfectly made-up face lighting up.

“Randy Harrison, right?”

“Yup, that’s me.”

“You’re the one that’s always naked with Gale.”

Gale coughed, his scotch seeming to go down the wrong pipe at precisely that moment.

“Me again,” Randy agreed, trying not to laugh at Gale‘s near choking.

“I’m Ashley… Collins. Old friend of Gale’s.” She leaned into Gale but still spoke loudly enough that everyone could hear. “He’s gorgeous. If you had to play love scenes with a man, you definitely got lucky.”

Randy blinked, unsure if he should say thank you, since she really wasn’t talking to him. Before he could figure it out, Gale replied, “Yes, I did.” His eyes focused unwaveringly on Randy’s.

But then Ashley spotted Sharon across the room and tugged on Gale’s arm, apparently really anxious to meet her. Gale looked pointedly from Randy to Steve and back, looking hurt and angry, then walked away, holding Ashley’s hand. She tossed out, “I’d kill for your skin,” over her shoulder to Randy, and then they were gone.

Everybody started talking about how lovely she was and why on earth they had broken up. Maybe Steve noticed Randy looking a little out of it, because he offered to go get him a drink and some food. Randy kissed his cheek and said thanks. Next thing he knew, Thea was standing in front of him, looking sad and worried.

“What’s happened with you and Gale?”

Randy nearly took a step back. “What do you mean? Nothing.”

“Why are you here on dates with other people?”

He hoped Steve got back with that drink soon because his throat was suddenly very dry. “Thea… what do you know?”

She smiled, appeased that he wasn’t completely denying it. “Who do you think almost walked in on the two of you in your dressing room that time?” she whispered.

“Oh my God.”

“Calm down. I didn’t see anything, and I don’t know any details, Randy. I only know what I’ve seen from the beginning. There’s something very real between you two that can’t be blamed on Brian and Justin… or hidden, no matter how good actors you are.”

“Who else knows?”

“Just me, I think. Some might suspect, but they convince themselves they’re kidding.”

Randy let out a shaky breath, actually feeling relieved to have Thea to talk to. “I thought everything was fine. But with her coming back, it just… He’s still straight, you know. At least, that’s what he thinks. And he’s ashamed of me.”

“You need to talk to him. Right away. Before you don’t see each other for months, and then you come back and have to work together and it’s just so much more painful.”

“Thanks, Thea.” He gave her a hug and she touched his cheek, then went to find where her husband had mingled off to.

Steve returned with a small plate and a cup of soda… not as strong as what Randy would have preferred, but it was sweet of him. Randy made himself stay there, eating and talking with Steve for a few minutes, feeling guilty about how little attention he was paying him. But when he saw Gale heading to the side door, pulling a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, he knew he had to act now. Knowing that Steve didn’t smoke, he told him he needed a smoke break and would be back in five minutes.

“Got a light?”

Gale heard Randy come up behind him in the cold night air but didn’t turn around until he uttered the cliché words. He flicked his lighter and lit the cigarette held by Randy’s lips.

“Your date didn’t have one? Where’d you find him, anyway?”

“Bookstore. He tried to pick me up weeks ago. He was looking at the gardening section, I…”

Gale laughed derisively. “What were you doing in the gardening section?”

“Actually I was next to it. Looking at… the photography books.”

Gale quieted.

“Point is, a lot of guys ask me out. Maybe you never think about that, maybe you don’t care, but they do. But I haven’t been seeing anyone but you!”

“Keep all the phone numbers, though, don’t you? Just in case?”

“Why not? It makes me feel good about myself. When I don’t know what the fuck is going on with us. When you decide to act like you don’t know me. When you decide to call in old girlfriends so you can feel securely straight…”

“Did you notice her fucking left hand?”

Gale’s low voice, interrupting calmly, startled Randy. “What?”

“She’s getting married, asshole. She’s engaged again. That’s what she wanted to tell me.”

“Oh.” Again, not what he had expected. “Are you upset?”

Gale laughed, disbelievingly this time. “No. I’m really happy for her, like she knew I would be. But that doesn’t mean that telling her about you and me would be okay.”

Randy rolled his eyes.

“I’m serious. If I told her, I’d want to tell her everything, meaning going back nearly three years. She only knows that I wasn’t ready to get married, or I didn’t love her enough in quite the right way. She doesn’t know…”

“The part I played in your epiphany?”

“I don’t want her to feel like there was somebody else, and definitely not a man. I don’t know how she’d react, and I just don’t think it’s fair to her. We’re friends now, but I hurt her enough.”

Randy leaned against the wall, puffing his cigarette and nodding slowly in consideration. “I guess I can understand that. But…”

“But what?”

“It’s not really fair to me either.”

“I know.” Gale got frustrated with his cigarette and tossed it to the floor, stepping on it. “I did tell her I’m involved with someone.”

Randy’s heart thumped with excitement. “You did?”

“I even said someone from work. I, uh, think she thinks it’s Michelle. Ash keeps trying to get me to dance with her.”

The corners of Randy‘s mouth pulled up, even as he blew out his last lungful of smoke. “Well, Michelle is very attractive.”

“Yes. But you are gorgeous. And I am very lucky. Everyone thinks so. Didn‘t you hear?”

Just when they’d gotten within an inch of each other and Randy was sure they were going to kiss, Gale stepped back. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a long envelope, handing it to Randy.

“This is for you. Don’t open it until you get home, okay? Alone,” he stressed, as if to warn Randy off taking Steve back to his place.

Randy wanted to ask what it was, but he held back. “I promise.”

Gale held Randy’s hand, clasping it around the envelope, then turned and walked back towards the building. “I haven’t been seeing anyone else either,” he added over his shoulder, before disappearing inside.

Randy put the envelope in his own pocket, waited an arbitrary ten seconds, and followed him.

They’d spent more than five minutes out there, and they had missed the showing of the blooper reel. When they got back, everyone was cracking up, recounting favorite embarrassing mistakes. Gale heard about quite a few of his. Randy not so much, as he rarely messed up. But there were a couple of ones of the two of them together that Ashley could not stop going on about to Gale. Another half hour or so of that, plus watching Randy on his half-assed but still technically a date, and Gale was ready to leave. He and Ashley started saying their goodbyes to all the cast and crew.

“Hey,” she whispered to him. “I think your special someone deserves more than that. Say goodbye properly.”

He watched her eyes dart over towards Michelle. Then he looked three feet to Michelle’s left and saw Randy, and thought… _Fuck it, she’s right._

Gale strode purposefully up to Randy, placed a hand on the back of his neck, and lowered his mouth to his. Any syllable of surprise Randy might have uttered was swirled and swallowed by Gale’s kiss. Both were vaguely aware of some gasps around them, some whistles, and finally an outbreak of applause. Maybe they just thought it was a performance of sorts, a happy final Brian and Justin moment on which to send everybody off to break. But Randy knew.

When Gale pulled back, he rubbed the moisture from Randy’s lips with his thumb, winked, and walked out. Ashley with her mouth hanging open but not really looking all that shocked.

Randy couldn’t believe Gale had done that, in front of everyone. He mouthed, “Oh my God,” to a grinning Thea, then turned and smiled apologetically to a confused-looking Steve, ready to end the date and the evening before people decided to start asking nosy questions.

*********

When Randy got back to his mostly packed up apartment that night and opened the envelope Gale had given him, what he found was a first-class airplane ticket. And a note.

“Rand, I know you’ll insist on paying me back for this, fucker, but let me have one grand romantic gesture for now, okay? Use it. You changed my life on one of these, and I don’t care what I am or what people call me, as long as you call me yours.”

There was some obvious erasing and rewriting, multiple times, at the end of that note. Followed by the added scrawl, “Corny as _FUCK!_ ” and a bizarre smiley face next to Gale’s signature.

The flight left the next day, early afternoon. Randy looked around… So much to do.

*********

“Excuse me… This is me.”

Gale looked up into the steel blue eyes of the most beautiful person he had ever seen. “I know. I got you the window seat.”

Randy squeezed past Gale’s legs, and the hand brushing his ass, and sat down.

“Ashley get on her way okay?”

“She left this morning. She said she suspected about you… us. She claims she pushed the Michelle thing just to get me to admit it.”

“You believe her?”

“Yeah. She does know me well. She said she saw it in my face when I looked at you, or when anybody said your name. She wasn’t upset. Said she couldn’t blame me a bit.”

“You were right. She is a cool girl. Think I can throw this away now?” Randy took out his wallet and removed the faded scrap of paper that had been there, taunting him, for close to three years… the wedding announcement.

“Yeah, I think so.” Gale balled it up and stuffed it in a barf bag in the seat pocket in front of him. Then he reached over to buckle Randy’s seat belt.

Randy held his breath. “So… Atlanta?”

“It started it all. I thought it would be fun to go back, just for a few days. Then we can go forward.”

“And we can both go to New York?”

“I meant in a grander sense, but… maybe.”

Randy forced himself not to celebrate too much too soon. One day at a time with Gale was more than enough for him.

“I should warn you, though,” Randy said, leaning close. “I can be pretty charming. But don’t fall in love with me.”

“Too late,” Gale whispered against his cheek.

“For me, too.”

“I might fall asleep on you.”

“You’d better. Maybe I’ll sing to you.”

“I’d like that. And if there’s turbulence…”

“I’ll meet you in the bathroom and distract you in every way the laws of physics will allow.”

“Fuck yeah,” Gale said, kissing Randy and ignoring a flight attendant’s knowing smile. “Finally, a reason to love flying.”

 


End file.
